Theatre Education and Literacy

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Theatre Education and Literacy
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WHY should teachers integrate drama?(from
Creating Meaning Through Literature and the
Arts by Claudia E. Cornett)

• Drama deals with real life problems
• Drama provokes creative problem solving and
  decision making
• Drama develops verbal and nonverbal communication
• Drama can enhance psychological well-being
• Drama develops empathy
• Drama builds cooperation and other social skills
• Drama increases concentration and comprehension
• Drama causes reflection on moral issues and
  values
• Drama can be used to assess
• Drama is entertaining
• Drama contributes to esthetic development
• Drama is a learning avenue to other areas of
  curriculum

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• The arts of music and creative drama are part
  and parcel of early childhood play. Children feel
  more secure in exploring new area when their
  foray is grounded in the familiar.

To employ such successful, natural and enjoyable
processes in an integrated manner for learning
new content makes eminently good sense.
Margaret Merrion and Janet Rubin, CREATIVE
APPROACHES TO ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM
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• Linguistic and social skills increase through a
  program of creative drama-The Effects of
  Creative Drama on the Social and Oral Language
  Skills of Children with Learning Disabilities,
  R.E. de la Cruz
• When children have been involved in the process
  of integrating creative drama with reading, they
  are not only able to better comprehend what
  theyve read and acted out, but they are also
  able to better comprehend what they have read but
  do not act out, such as the written scenarios
  they encounter on standardized tests.-The
  Effectiveness of Creative Drama as an
  Instructional Strategy to Enhance the Reading
  Comprehension Skills of Fifth-Grade Remedial
  Readers, Sherry DuPont

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In my own experience as a theatre teacher, I have
observed the relationship between theatre and
literacy.Here are a few examples from my
experiences in the theatre classroom

• I have observed.
• Bilingual students gain confidence in their
  English speaking skills through theatre and drama
• Students gain a greater vocabulary through
  theatre and drama
• Students learn about the elements of stories
  through theatre and drama
• Students learn how to sequence a story through
  theatre and drama
• Students gain greater reading comprehension
  skills through theatre and drama
• Students gain writing skills through writing
  scenes, monologues and entire plays